The Growth of @DaytonMBB Social Media (A Thread)

The past year brought HUGE growth for @DaytonMBB on social.

We know that team success plays a HUGE role in that. However, a fresh approach and renewed focus on growth also played major roles in the results we saw across the board

I finally had some time to look at the bigger picture and see just what we did. And, it's pretty freaking sweet.

So I wanted to share them with you and showcase how incredible this past year was for DaytonMBB on social media

Here are some fun stats from the DaytonMBB Twitter Account (June 2019-June 2020):

- Averaged 2.758 million impressions/month
- Averaged 42,490 Profile Visits/Month
- Averaged 2,307 Mentions/Month

In addition to that, we gained over 8,000 new followers (see chart in next tweet)

For us, we really value followers. That (along with engagement/impression rate) are stats that really tell us if our content is hitting or not

So, I decided to see how we stacked up against the average follower # of teams in the A-10, Big East, & AAC (All centric conferences)

Here are some fun stats for Facebook:

- Gained 5,850 new Followers
- Gained 4,334 new Likes
- Saw a consistently high engagement rate on videos (consistently over 4%)

While Facebook is a valuable channel for many things, we really put our focus into Twitter/Instagram in 2019/20

Instagram. We REALLY put an emphasis on growing this account. Here are the fun stats:

- Went from 12,859 followers to 31,623
- A growth rate of over 145%
- Averaged an engagement rate of 5.84% (an engagement rate between 3.5-6% is considered HIGH)

Similar to Twitter, I wanted to compare us vs. the average of others. A couple stats from my research-

- We saw the most growth BY FAR out of any school in any of these conferences
- We would rank in the Top 4 (in terms of followers/engagement rate) in any of the conferences

While we didn't have any hard goals going into the year, we absolutely crushed the soft goals that were set throughout the season. Again, team success helps A TON! But we spent countless hours preparing for the moment, and it paid off.

A few other fun notes from the season...

We teamed up with @INFLCR this year to help our guys get easier access to content. THIS WAS A GAME CHANGER.

Here are some stats-

- The guys averaged 4.5 app sessions/week
- They downloaded/shared over 440 pieces of content
- That content had an avg. interaction rate of 28.82%

In addition to this, we saw an insane number of videos and pictures go viral via shares by @SportsCenter, @BleacherReport, @SLAMonline, @marchmadness and so many other national media outlets..

Every time It happened, it was HUGE for helping us grow the DaytonMBB National Brand

We recognized a fair share of credit for this goes to the Human Highlight Reel: Obi Toppin ( @obitoppin1)

This guy is truly an incredible athlete and even better human being.

If you don't, go follow him right now and help him reach 10K followers!

So.. This all doesn't just happen. A lot of people deserve A TON of credit for helping make this happen

First, the squad (especially @JHaring40 and @CoachAFarrell ) are essential in helping us get content

Having a team that's willing to give you access is a GAME CHANGER

Second, the Legend Doug Hauschild ( @CoSIDAnews Hall of Famer) and his crew of interns.

Being a smaller staff, they are huge in helping us on gameday and beyond.

Also, Erik Schelkun (@flyerimages on Insta) was KEY in helping us snag content of the guys throughout the year.

Next, the newcomer @AJSchraff56 who was with the squad all year getting the behind the scenes stuff we need. Without him and his camera, we don't have some of the incredible sound bites and shots we get to use.

If you don't follow this guy, go do it right now

And we can't forget.. the best Director of Creative Content in the country & his crew of interns. @jon_asher and his crew of interns (including @charlieduross aka the Meme Master) absolutely CRUSHED it. We aren't in the spot we are now on social without Jon & his crew.

If you don't already follow @jon_asher, do yourself a favor and follow him RIGHT NOW on both Instagram/Twitter!

He is the MVP of Dayton Social Media and Creative Content. Also, he knows a thing or two about Movies and the hit TV show, Survivor

There are countless other individuals who helped us get to the point we are today. Social Media, as a whole, is an absolute BEAST and we don't see the growth we saw without everyone helping us out.

Teamwork makes the dreamwork

It's also worth mentioning, this is all JUST for 1 team. We have 16 sports along w/ main dept. channels

Social Media at the NCAA level is A BEAST.

We have a ton of amazing people working around the clock to make it run and grow. Every single one of these folks is incredible

Last, none of this is possible without the best fans in the country. We couldn't of seen this growth without everyone sharing our content and allowing us to reach parts of the internet we haven't seen before. Flyer Nation (and Dayton Twitter) is truly something special

All of this is to say... Thank you. The growth we saw this past year from DaytonMBB (along with every single one of our other team accounts) doesn't happen without the incredible people behind the scenes and the best fans in the country.

Go Flyers

TL/DR: Dayton Men's Basketball saw historic growth on social media in the last year. If you don't already, you should follow DaytonMBB (and all the other Dayton Athletics social handles) on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram

Go Flyers